Fancy A Natter?

What's going on with everyone?

Did anyone go to a bonfire at the weekend? We were going to but in the end we just decided to stay at home instead. I did see an excellent firework display though. On Wednesday night the school in the next street had a display so I could see it from the living room. It was gorgeous! Thankfully the rabbits aren't too bothered about the bangs so I'm grateful for that.

At the weekend we planted some bulbs in our newly reclaimed area of ground - we had some really overgrown trees and cut them back last month so we can now see the ground underneath. It looks like there are already some daffodils planted, I bought some anemones and a couple of other things to go with them. We'll see how they go. Saturday afternoon we went to Keswick, had lunch there and did some shopping - most of it window shopping. The drive was fantastic with all the autumn colours around the lakes and stuff. Really nice day.

Yesterday I just bodded about at home and we took the buns to the vet in the evening. Nothing exciting there! Not sure what, if anything, we're doing for the rest of the week. And we have a free weekend this weekend *yay*. My parents and their friends are coming up the weekend after which should be fun. We're going to see Dave Gorman at the end of the month and I think that's all we have planned for November.

How about you?

We didn't go to a bonfire but we did get together with our neighbours and had a joint fireworks display of our own! It was so cold though everyone was glad when they were finished. To be honest they weren't that great and DH says next year he isn't buying any, but he says this every year!
Started the dreaded christmas shopping and have managed to pick up a few bargains, I know what I'm getting everyone now it's just a case of getting out and buying it all, well all except my dad, he is so hard to buy for, every year I feel like I buy him the same things, jumper, slippers, socks, dvds, and have now officially ran out of ideas.
Alec, thanks for the reminder, I have some daffodil bulbs that need planting asap, will get DH onto it at the weekend as I'm not too good with digging!
Next Monday is our youngest DS birthday, he has started a countdown to it! We have a surprise for his birthday, took advantage of a code on MSE a few weeks ago for a free Moonpig card. On the front it has his photo and his favourite Transformer, and inside it says "Happy Birthday Josh, Since you've been such a good boy, you're not going to Spain anymore you're going to Florida!!" We are fortunate enough to have been to Florida 4 times and DS loves it, we had an unexpected windfall and decided to spend it, but told DS that we were going to Spain as we couldn't afford it, can't wait to see his little face. A bit sad that our other DS won't be with us but when we go in June but he will be 16 and doesn't want to come, so he will be staying with my dad.
Got some studying to do and my first tutorial for my Open University course is next week, looking forward to that!

Oh my goodness, his reaction will be priceless when he reads his card!

You sounds so organised with the Christmas stuff. We have an idea what we're buying for some people but not everyone yet. We don't have many gifts to buy but they're all pretty tricky, apart from my mum who loves everything and anything

Hope he enjoys his birthday 2 boys mum.

We had a lovely Autumn walk too on Sunday then came home and had a roast dinner.

isnt it crap out there wet and dismal no chance for the washing today.

It's not wet here today but it's really cloudy and grey. I doubt anything would dry if I set it outside. It's a bit of a nothingy day weatherwise really. Not too cold though which is a bonus.

We've decided to go to the cinema tonight, we have a free ticket so it won't cost too much - unless Dan can't shield me from the Fro Yo

what are you going to see? Never go to the cinema these days too dear, too noisy, and watch sky instead.

we went to watch the colchester council display without having to pay lol. we go sit on a nature reserve on a hill and can watch the castle display plus loads of others because we can see most of the town form up there. other people go up there too, but we're the only ones ever to take a hot picnic, blankets and deck chairs hahahaha!
I had a good weekend with jim and sophie. jim goes back to work on thursday night after a 7 week break so it will be nice getting back to normal, but hard having to cope without him again, but I have Sophie's yule gift to keep me occupied. it's a refurbished netbook we saved up for, but it needs some work to make it sophie-able lol.starting with a software update for her wifi card to make sure she can use her netbook at grandma's house and not just home and mcdonalds.
we got it this morning and I've already updated her operating system, removed evil evil software like Norton, disabled internet explorer, installed good good software like AVG and Firefox, switched off the bluetooth so she gets more battery power, and made her a list of single click links to her favorite sites, and set parental guidance locks on bbc iplayer and channel 5 on demand.... I'm on a roll!!

We're going to see "In Time" which looks like a sci-fi/action type thing. That's all I know about it really other than Matt Bomer has a part in it and we love the tv show Chuck and he was in that! We did want to go last night to see Tosca, but opera at the cinema is £15 each which was just a little bit too expensive for us this month. A real shame but there you have it.

I wanted to go and see that but jim is adamant he wont pay for cinema tickets, not even on cheap day (today)

Hi all,

We went to the local bonfire at the weekend, DD loved the first 10 minutes then it got too much for her an DS loved it all. Since then I have been pretty much trying to get my head down and write my first essay for this new OU course, it's due on Friday and I am struggling so much. The study material is really interesting but I'm really not getting on with the format - it's all on the computer not in books and my eyes just go wierd looking at it all and it's not sinking in. Not helping that I'm having a hard couple of weeks with the kids, DD been getting joint pains (to do with her hypermobility) and DS is teething. On the bright side though we have just found out that DD has qualified for some funding for a short family break so we have had 4 nights books for us at centreparcs next year so will have our first family holiday to look forward too. She did really well in the walker at her mobility group yesterday but we were both shattered by the evening as it's hard work. I'm in a bit of a rut at the moment - getting a bit down, i's so hard trying to get appropriate services for DD and TBH I could do with a bit of a break from it all. I'm sure I'll perk up soon just got to look ahead to stuff. On the upside I've nearlly finished the Christmas shopping - does anyone think it's a bit warped of me to be starting on next years' birthdays now?

what are you studying?

centre parks something to look forward too

Aiming for a BA hons in Childhood and Youth Studies, just finished K101 Introduction to Health and Social Care waiting for exam result. Started K218 Working with Children, Young People and Families last month and got U212, Childhood starting at the end of Jan! Going to be a busy bunny!

Yes, Centre parcs will be good to look forward too, just feels a long way off at the moment. Booked Santa Passes for the South Lakes Wild Animal Park for the first Sat in December and will stay the weekend with my parents so will get a bit of looking after there.

Not keen on the nights drawing in and always get a bit down at this time of year - can't believe it went dark here at half 4! Mind you was such a miserable day I'm not really surprised.

Have a good evening everyone.

me too i hate this time of year. I miss the summer. Never mind.

The film was pretty good! It was a little different to what I thought it was going to be like but we both enjoyed it.

thats good. Ive been watching the Jury this week at 9pm anyone else watching?

I'm watching the Jury, it seems to send OH to sleep

wonder if he did it?

Ive been to voluntary work this morning where we had a rememberance service. Then into town for some things. Washing machine on. We are going to the bank tonight after work to chat about Oh isa. They are open till 7pm for people who are at work during the day. Then we will have tea when we get back no time before we go.

What channel is The Jury on? Sounds interesting.

We didn't do much last night, Dan was on the phone to his mum for ages so I just worked on my wallhanging then we watched Kirstie's Handmade and Grand Designs. Dan's hoping to finish work early today, he's hosting some kind of child poverty meeting so it's not like a normal day, it's lots of different local authorities sharing what they're doing so we might have a walk to the beach or something.

Can't believe it's Thursday already, this week has flown.

I want to hurt things!!!!!

Aparently the toruble we're getting with sophie's laptop (Yule present, £124.99, refurb, mini version of the family computer, adorable) is very common. if it's so common, why can't I fix it?! grrr!!

(for techheads: the problem is the WIFI LAN card it has installed needs a firmware update to be able to access WPA networks, at the moment it will only access WEP networks; WPA and WEP are security coding systems for network routers. WEP is a lower level of security than WPA... anyway, this is all fine for using it at home and at mcdonald's or the library, but if she wants to get online at my mum's house we're going to need WPA access...grrr)

I'm in the final throes of getting ready to go away. Was aiming to be ready by 3pm, leaving just after 4pm. I've just got to put proper clothes and makeup on, finish the picnic tea and decide which shoes to take. We seem to have a lot, but going for 11 days. In car so it doesn't matter.

I've been driven to distraction with things that need cables and plugs. heaven only knows where the continental adaptors have all gone. I'll blame the kids seeing as they aren't here!

I need a cup of tea!

The jury is on ITV at 9pm.

Kettle's on!

Where you going - somewhere good I hope, have a lovely time.

grey day here threating rain. Badminton tonight.

The sky is bright white here, quite windy too. We don't have anything to do this weekend so it's fine with me if the weather stays like this as we can just stay in and enjoy some time at home. Nothing to report from today. Just getting some sewing done. We have recorded quite a few things so we might watch the tv tonight or maybe we'll stick a film or an opera on. We'll see how we feel when Dan gets home.

Have a good weekend everyone.